English: Shadows_ Interactive Exhibit Museum

The interactive installation Schatten meaning “Shadows” is a work about guilt and acceptance. Eric, the main character, works as an emergency dispatcher. While working one night, he accidently causes the death of a small child. While distracted by a phone call from his heavily pregnant wife, he sends the ambulance to the wrong address. The guilt he feels begins to eat him alive. He falls apart and begins to drown in depression.

This story is the narrative for the installation called Shadow. Three different spaces reflect the three stages of disintegration: repression, flashback, and acknowledgement.

The first space is dedicated to repression. Six foot high slabs, with an anamorphic display tell the story of Eric’s inner fight, his disorientation, and his disintegration. Partially reflective mirrors cover LED screens. The default state for the LED screens is off, and when visitors approach they see their own image in the mirrors. When the LED screens turn on, visitors can see a movie showing scenes of Eric’s repression through the mirrors.

There is an infinity mirror at the front of the room which shows infinite reflections of Eric’s silhouette walking across from right to left, guiding the visitor in the direction he/she needs to go to explore the rest of installation.

The next zone deals with Eric’s flashbacks of what happened. Flashbacks are involuntary, sudden, and very intense memories of a specific incident. Flashbacks relive a specific moment over and over again. Flashbacks do not subside. They don’t grow dull. They remain vivid and intense.

There are cubes hanging from the ceiling. The visitor steps onto a lightly raised platform and enters an enclosed space inside the cube, where he sees a flashback playout right in front of him. The flashback images are shown from a first person point of view. The images are blurred except where gyro sensors track eye movements to show clear images where the visitor focuses his eyes. Only specific parts of the whole image can be seen clearly.

If the visitor turns around he will see another screen displaying Eric’s face staring right at him, looking towards the screen where the flashback is displayed. Once the flashback ends, the platforms lights up showing an infinity mirror evoking the feeling of endlessness.

All the cubes tell the same story. Flashbacks are about reliving one experience over and over again. You cannot escape them.

There are two projections in the same room as the cubes. These deal with the moment Eric confronts his mistake. On one wall shows Eric, life size, walking in slow motion to the end of the wall. His body fades and we see his memories appear inside the silhouette of his body.

He walks up to the wall showing the next projection. Eric turns around and moves toward the visitor until the screen is filled by the images of his memories. Here we see the final stage of his suffering. Eric collapses at the scene of the accident. This is where it all began for Eric. This is the place an innocent child lost his life because of one second’s distraction. Just one second of inattention – enough to choose the wrong address. The ambulance will never arrive in time.

The final stage of the narrative is captured in an artwork located at the exit of the installation.

When the visitor leaves this space, he enters a room where the story is told once again as a short film.

See the making of.

Final words:We started of in a plain studio space and ended up in various rooms for experiences. 3 month concept – 2 Students, 3 month: creating sound and image content – 8 students, 1 month building the stage – 8 students plus helping hands. We are full of praise and thank all of you who helped realising this crazy project. We don’t really know how we would have managed without families and friends.